Cruise Report: 2023-06-05 : 06-07

Pot survey

Author

Mike O’Brien (UMCES)

General notes

This was the first instance of using ropeless gear. The gear was deployed on one end of two strings, replacing a block and float, with the other utilizing a surface buoy. The ground line was attached directly to the cage; a snood should be used in the future as it was tough to pull the cage over the block due to its weight.

In previous cruises, the first five fish from each “near” and “far” section were culled for diet analyses. There were quite a few fish exhibiting everted stomachs due to barotrauma in this cruise, which would produce “false zeroes” when conducting gut content analysis. To avoid this, those fish we selected for diet analyses had no signs of barotrauma. However, we noticed during the course of the survey that larger fish tended to exhibit more signs of barotrauma, which may lead to biased size selection of fish. As we also record gonadosomatic and hepatosomatic indices in the lab – indices which depend on spawning fish – we decided that fish in future cruises should not be selected in this manner.

Participants

  • Dave Secor (UMCES)
  • Mike O’Brien (UMCES)
  • Capt. Brendan Harrington (F/V Integrity)
  • Ethan, Connor (F/V Integrity, mates)

Pot deployment cruise, 2023-06-06

Overall

  • 02:30 Meet at F/V Integrity, prepare for departure.
  • 02:55 Depart dock, transit to C2306-1 (control site).
  • 05:06 Arrive at C2306-1.
    • 05:17 Begin deploying pots, including release cage.
    • 05:30 Finish deploying pots, transit to C2306-2 (control site).
  • 06:14 Arrive at C2306-2.
    • 06:15 Begin deploying pots.
    • 06:17 Finish deploying pots, transit to O12 (experimental turbine site).
  • 06:54 Arrive at O12.
    • 06:55 Begin deploying pots.
    • 06:57 Finish deploying pots, transit to P12 (experimental turbine site).
  • 07:17 Arrive at P12.
    • 07:18 Begin deploying pots.
    • 07:20 Finish deploying pots, transit to K08 (experimental turbine site).
  • 08:05 Arrive at K08.
    • 08:06 Begin deploying pots.
    • 08:08 Finish deploying pots, transit to J11 (experimental turbine site).
  • 08:39 Arrive at J11.
    • 08:39 Begin deploying pots, including release cage.
    • 08:41 Finish deploying pots, begin fishing.
  • 08:41 End pot deployment, return to West Ocean City, MD.
  • 10:50 Arrive in West Ocean City, MD.

Description

Survey deployment

Capt. Brendan Harrington and matesretrieved the pots from the Maryland Coastal Bays program and stacked the pots on the boat on 5 June. Pots were not attached to the ground line before leaving port as in other cruises; Capt. Harrington attached the pots just before deployment, resulting in slightly longer times between deployments. DS and MOB checked and dropped off ropeless cages to be attached before deployment.

Survey commenced on 6 June. Wind speed was <10 knots, coming from the W. Waves were 3 ft. Cloud cover was 20-30% of the sky and hazy due to fires in Quebec. Control sites ranged in depth from 60-120 ft, with turbine sites ranging from 97-105 ft.

Onset HOBO temperature loggers were attached to the ropeless cages and deployed at a control (C2306-1) and turbine (J11) site to log bottom temperature at 10 minute intervals during deployment.

Pot recovery cruise, 2023-06-07

Overall

  • 02:30 Meet at F/V Integrity, prepare for departure.
  • 02:51 Depart dock, transit to C2306-1.
  • 04:58 Arrive at C2306-1.
    • 05:06 Release cage recovered.
    • 05:18 Second block recovered; pot recovery complete. Transit to C2306-2.
  • 06:18 Arrive C2306-2. Begin pot recovery approach.
    • 06:25 Southern block recovered.
    • 06:34 Northern block recovered; pot recovery complete. Transit to O12.
  • 07:15 Arrive O12. Begin pot recovery approach.
    • 07:17 Southern block recovered.
    • 07:27 Northern block recovered; pot recovery complete. Transit to P12.
  • 07:44 Arrive P12. Begin pot recovery approach.
    • 07:45 Southern block recovered.
    • 07:59 Northern block recovered; pot recovery complete. Transit to K08.
  • 08:38 Arrive K08. Begin pot recovery approach.
    • 08:42 Southern block recovered.
    • 08:51 Northern block recovered; pot recovery complete. Transit to J11.
  • 09:18 Arrive J11. Begin pot recovery approach.
    • 09:25 Southern block recovered.
    • 09:35 Northern block recovered; pot recovery complete.
  • 09:49 End survey, return to West Ocean City, MD.
  • 12:00 Arrive in West Ocean City, MD.

Description

Wind speed was 15-20 knots from the W, falling throughout the day to <5 knots (as reported by Capt. Harrington). Waves were 2-3 feet, falling to 2 feet. Cloud cover was unable to be ascertained due to the smoke haze.

Pots were recovered in the same manner as in previous cruises. Ropeless cage recovery added a few minutes per site, but was relatively seamless.

HOBO temperature loggers were successfully recovered from the rigs at C2306-1 and J11.

Dominant species were black sea bass (75) and Atlantic rock crab (24). 10 of the 90 recovered pots were empty.

There was no significant difference in black sea bass catch between near and far sections of the lines or turbine and control sites (Poisson GLM, \(p >\) 0.05).

Total length (mm) and weight (g) of all black sea bass were recorded. Total lengths of other fish species were also recorded. Black sea bass ranged in total length from 170 - 376 mm, with a mean of 255 mm (minimum legal size 320 mm). Weights ranged from 100 - 780 g, mean of 262 g.

There were no significant differences in length or weight between near and far or control and turbine sites (ANOVA, \(p >\) 0.05).

Catch and size data summaries are shown in the sample summary section below.

Station information

datetime depth wind_speed wind_dir wave_height cloud_cover_10th ropeless_id surf_temp_f lon_start lat_start lon_end lat_end notes participants
deploy
C2306-1 2023-06-06 05:17:46 NA NA NA 3.0 smog NA 61 −74.84039 38.18432 −74.83847 38.18573 release cage used. smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm
C2306-2 2023-06-06 06:15:50 NA <10 W 3.0 smog NA 61 −74.70162 38.20828 −74.70005 38.21023 smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm
O12 2023-06-06 06:55:15 NA <10 W 2.0 smog NA 59 −74.65081 38.26888 −74.64883 38.27083 smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm
P12 2023-06-06 07:18:41 NA <10 W 2.0 smog NA 61 −74.63002 38.26927 −74.63353 38.26905 smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm
K08 2023-06-06 08:06:59 NA <10 W 44960.0 smog/2 NA 61 −74.70522 38.33642 −74.70346 38.33856 smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm
J11 2023-06-06 08:39:48 NA <10 W 44960.0 smog/2 NA 61 −74.72948 38.28595 −74.72680 38.28671 release cage used. smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm
recover
C2306-1 2023-06-07 05:06:15 NA 15-20 NA 44960.0 smog NA NA −74.84089 38.18419 −74.83950 38.18525 release cage used. smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm
C2306-2 2023-06-07 06:25:03 NA 45214.0 NA 44960.0 smog NA 61 −74.70212 38.20821 −74.70198 38.20967 smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm
O12 2023-06-07 07:17:56 NA 45056.0 NA 2.0 smog NA 61 −74.65114 38.26874 −74.65060 38.27020 smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm
P12 2023-06-07 07:45:18 NA 45056.0 NA 2.0 smog NA 61 −74.63354 38.26924 NA NA smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm
K08 2023-06-07 08:42:48 NA <10 NA 2.0 smog NA 61 −74.70563 38.33647 −74.70482 38.33834 smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm
J11 2023-06-07 09:25:43 NA <5 NA 2.0 smog NA NA −74.72979 38.28619 −74.72790 38.28702 release cage used. smog/smoke from wildfires in Quebec DS, MOB, BH, Em, Cm

Bottom temperature

Cruise map

Sample summary

Catch

Black sea bass catch
N min average med max sd retained
June - 2022 - Control
far 18 0 1.0 1 2 0.77 33
near 10 0 1.4 1 5 1.81 25
June - 2022 - Project
far 6 0 0.3 0 2 0.58 42
near 5 0 0.4 0 2 0.65 42
July - 2022 - Control
far 18 0 1.2 0 6 1.93 8
near 11 0 0.9 1 3 1.08 6
July - 2022 - Project
far 13 0 0.5 0 3 0.70 12
near 4 0 0.2 0 1 0.43 3
August - 2022 - Control
far 112 0 3.3 1 21 5.24 20
near 71 0 3.0 1 18 5.03 16
August - 2022 - Project
far 36 0 0.5 0 5 0.96 24
near 35 0 0.7 0 8 1.53 21
April - 2023 - Control
far 14 0 0.8 0 4 1.26 8
near 3 0 0.2 0 3 0.87 3
April - 2023 - Project
far 29 0 0.7 0 5 1.23 18
near 29 0 1.2 0 7 2.15 13
May - 2023 - Control
far 12 0 0.7 0 3 0.91 10
near 15 0 1.2 1 3 0.87 10
May - 2023 - Project
far 79 0 2.2 2 7 1.82 20
near 40 0 1.7 2 4 1.24 20
June - 2023 - Control
far 101 0 2.7 1 14 3.78 33
near 42 0 1.8 0 12 3.30 25
June - 2023 - Project
far 226 0 3.0 1 21 4.13 42
near 184 0 3.8 1 18 4.66 42

June 2023 catch

The blank bars on the right show the count of pots with no catch.

Fish measurements

Total length (mm)

Weight (g)

Sex